Poetry Evening

Paul is a poet, travel writer and biographer, author of six travel books, the biography Ralegh’s Last Journey (HarperCollins), the guide Getting Into Poetry and seven poetry titles including Art of the Impossible, New & Selected Poems (Bloodaxe, 2004). Paul is an experienced reader of his work on BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4 and as writer-in-residence/and performer at literary events.

Kate’s collection, Stitches, was published by Peterloo and her chapbook, Escaping the Cage, by HappenStance. Her poems and short fiction have been broadcast on Radio 4 and in the US. She is an award-winning author of 35 children’s books, and a children’s TV head writer, scriptwriter and story editor. Her plays have been performed at fringe venues in Salisbury and London.

Catherine’s poetry has appeared in journals in the UK and USA. We Have Heard Ravens – her collection of prose poems drawn from the diaries of Dorothy Wordsworth (Flagon Press) became a performance with music composed by Virginia Astley. She collaborates with artist Rachel Sargent on exhibitions of poems and paintings, including Far West (Artmill Gallery, Plymouth, 2021) and Sanctuary, written during 2020 about a much loved local common.

Pam is a children’s author, librettist, playwright, and poet. On Cigarette Papers, her first collection, was short-listed for the Seamus Heaney Centre Prize and adapted by her for The Afternoon Play on Radio 4, in which she also acted. Foothold travels through the seasons and ecology in Thomas Hardy Territory. She is an experienced tutor and reader.

Who’s in the Next Room?
by Thomas Hardy

“Who’s in the next room?–who?
I seemed to see
Somebody in the dawning passing through,
Unknown to me.”
“Nay: you saw nought. He passed invisibly.”

“Who’s in the next room?–who?
I seem to hear
Somebody muttering firm in a language new
That chills the ear.”
“No: you catch not his tongue who has entered there.”

“Who’s in the next room?–who?
I seem to feel
His breath like a clammy draught, as if it drew
From the Polar Wheel.”
“No: none who breathes at all does the door conceal.”

“Who’s in the next room?–who?
A figure wan
With a message to one in there of something due?
Shall I know him anon?”
“Yea he; and he brought such; and you’ll know him anon.”